‘Next Words’ Writing Series Kicks Off at Pop Hop in LA

The MFA Creative Writing class of 2013 presents Next Words, a reading series that introduces new works from CalArts writers to the greater Los Angeles community. Tonight, the series kicks off at Pop Hop in Los Angeles’ Highland Park neighborhood with several graduating students reading from their theses.

Among them:

Janice Sapigao’s Where Did You Get All Those English From? is a fictional memoir about Magdalena, a young girl who grows up in a fatherless house with 12 other people. Her manuscript aims to further a youth perspective and a girlhood poetics, believing that kids know their own consciousness more than people think.

Laura Schmidt’s book-length project, Alabama Crossing, takes a close look at the impact of religious homophobia on identity. Vacillating between prose poetry and traditional narrative, the project aims to represent the fracturing mind of a young queer Christian living in the Deep South as she tries to reconcile her family, faith and orientation.

24700 is CalArts' online space dedicated to sharing news and work of the larger CalArts community from around the world. The blog captures stories of the exploration of new forms and expressions in the arts by our students, faculty, staff and alumni.